Is a family car a necessity or a luxury?

It had been a debate since I 1st mention that we NEED a car after marriage.

Ok, points to clarify:

1. I dun need a car if I am still single. Living beside the MRT station is my best transport.
2. I dun need a car when I am paktoring. We can go anywhere with public transport, I dun need a guy to send me home in flashy car anyway.
3. I dun need a car in our current state, where Kandro is old enough to walk around without a stroller, and her school is juz behind our block.

Ok, fast forward to 2013. Here is the location of our future home:

Saw where is the nearest LRT (Note, not even MRT) is? And the nearest shopping mall? My initial idea was to get a small 0.8L OPC to juz drive from my future home to mummy's place and park there den go tk MRT. Kandro's school is there oso. Then in the evening, after we had dinner, we could drive home.

And we could use it for weekend outing oso. Our outing is usually confine within town or northeast region for obvious reason. We dun get to places that is out of the way. Eg, Kranji farm.

My estimate cost for owning a personal transport is less then $500 a month. It is a small price to pay for.

To prevent the future husband to niam any further. here is the breakdown cost:

A 2nd hand OPC 1.oA car registered in 2008: 24K (price assume in year 2012/2013), monthly installmen $264.
Monthly Parking: $90 + $32.50
Road Tax: $70 (as of 20111)
Insurance: $1.4K per yr
Fuel: est $80 (seriously, how much u can burn in 4km a day?)

Avg Cost Per month: $466.50

Dear hubby to be, $500 per mth is a small price to pay to save ur sanity for a family for 4 (and a dog).